It was May 24th, 2013, my first day of summer vacation after graduating 8th grade, when my alarm rang at five thirty in the morning. I got up, got dressed, and I laced up my brand new shoes and prepared for my one shot at history. I had decided that I could attempt to break the Prescott Junior High School distance record and endurance time record which could not include any stopping or even walking at all and had to be done all on a quarter mile track. I was the first girl to even attempt to break the boy’s record of 21 miles and three and a half hours that had been set many years before. Having run my first marathon, the Modesto Marathon, with the amazing support of Teens Run Modesto and two months earlier and two half marathons since then, I was pretty sure I could break the record.
I got to Prescott just after six and started setting up the aid station. I was joined by the boys that were attempting the record with me and many of my Teens Run Modesto coaches: Miss Pingree, Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Kern, Mr. Olsen, Mr. Coxford, and my mom. By six thirty we had lined up at our starting line and we were off! They cheered and clapped for us even though we were only running around a ten minute pace and we were all running together; we didn’t have a reason to make it a race. Around mile three the precautionary of drinking more water than a fish to avoid dehydration on a hot day started to set in a little and I think that was about the time I realized how difficult this would truly be. Every thirty minutes we switched the direction we ran on the track to keep the stress on our legs equal. By mile six(right around one hour) my legs were starting to cramp up so I took a shot block and stared thinking about how soon it would all be over. It wasn’t over soon; the sun felt like it was going to bake me alive, even with the amazing efforts of our support team spraying us with water and running through the parts of the track that were getting hit by the sprinklers. By mile fourteen we had already lost one runner, leaving me wondering how long my body could keep me going. Around mile fifteen I was temporarily re-energized when a visiting teacher brought me Fritos. After the wonderfulness of Fritos wore off I was getting really close to stopping, I not only ached but my IT band was defiantly not appreciating the surprise sixteen miles. From then until around mile twenty I don’t remember a whole lot because I spent all of my concentration on pretending I was running anywhere but a track where it was blazing hot on my first day of summer vacation. At mile twenty I snapped out of “my zone” long enough to hear that I only needed to run another mile to tie the distance record; the time record was already mine. I made every painful step of that mile before I realized that I didn’t want to tie a record. I wanted to break it. I went another lap swearing I would stop once I came back around, but for some reason I don’t understand my legs forgot to stop moving. I ran two more laps before notifying the coaches I was on my last lap, for real this time. They pulled caution tape left over from graduation and made us a finish line, which was the second best part of the run. The best part was when Miss Pingree gave us the medals she decorated for us. I can now say that I am the only Prescott girl that holds the same record that a boy does at twenty-two miles and four and a half hours.
By Emily Kleinfelder